Barring any late legal surprises, Mayor Bloomberg's 16-ounce cap on sugary sodas goes into effect on Tuesday, March 12. After that, restaurants, movie theaters, sports venues and food carts will not be permitted to sell extra-large portions of sugar-packed drinks.

Stay calm. This does not signal the end of democracy in America. This is not the nanny state gone out of control.

If we want Americans to be healthy, we are going to have to take actions like this - and many more - and do so soon

-snip

So-called "nanny-state" measures - like bans on driving while drunk, smoking in public places and, now, selling absurdly large sugary drinks - help to level the playing field. Such measures are about giving everyone an equal opportunity to live a safer and healthier life.

At the moment, it is up to you to make healthier choices, but that's not easy in the face of relentless soda marketing. Governments have a responsibility to provide healthier environments for their citizens.

And, therein lies the fallacious foundation of this overreach by government. It is NOT THE BUSINESS OF GOVERNMENT whether I want to be healthy.
Of course, the response from the left is that my health determines my health care costs, which affect everyone else.

I call BS on that one, too. The cost of healthcare in the US did not start its meteoric rise until the feds got their tentacles in the industry back in the 1950’s. I was there.
I remember going to the doctor’s office for his afternoon office hours. Sit in the waiting room with the others on queue. The doctor called us in, one after the other, took our two dollars, and did his work. We left with meds, instructions for care and appointment for follow-up visit (if necessary).
Then...the feds got involved... That spelled the advent of defensive medicine, over testing, and double digit price increases year after year. The deeper the feds got their teeth into the industry, the worse it got. And, we see no end in sight.

8
posted on 03/10/2013 1:15:33 PM PDT
by PubliusMM
(RKBA; a matter of fact, not opinion. 01-20-2016; I pray we make it that long.)

Marion Nestle is every bit the wannabe fascist tyrant that Hitler (actually) was and that Obama strives to be. The left in this country is truly unhinged in their deisre to subjugate and enslave their neighbors.

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
- C. S. Lewis

So this woman is also an expert on pet nutrition? I remember seeing a film about what dogs really want to eat, which the stomach and entrails of another aninmal if I remember right.
I chuckle at the current pet food ads that assure us our dogs are starving for veggies, grains and blueberries.
Did she put Bloomie up to this or vice versa?

13
posted on 03/10/2013 1:26:34 PM PDT
by Wiser now
(Socialism does not eliminate poverty, it guarantees it.)

"You may find this hard to believe, but the original Coca-Cola was 6.5 ounces, smaller than any size available today."

And it was marketed as a "tonic" -- complete with that wonderful pick-me-up cocaine.

"Fix the price differential. A 7.5-ounce can of soda costs twice as much per ounce as a two-liter bottle, and you can't buy just one; it comes in an 8-pack. Price determines sales. If a 16-ounce soda costs a dollar, a 32-ounce soda should cost two dollars."

Let me reword that: Completely ignore the economic realities involved. Penalize people for attempting to economize by buying their drinks in larger containers, and either sharing them, or storing the remainder in the fridge for another time. Don't concern yourself about all the extra packaging material smaller containers use. We'll just make containers illegal sometime in the near future.

The author of this article gives food NAZIs a bad name. Are you positive this isn't satire?

I've come to the realization that anything written by marion nestle needs to be limited by law to no more than 12 words. Comparing the sugary drink ban to drunk driving laws may be the dumbest thing I've ever read. I mean we're talking "Sheila Jackson Lee- DUMB here!" Anything more and I find my brain cells dying. So in the name of public health, she needs to be banned from being able to write in public.

Mark

15
posted on 03/10/2013 1:46:26 PM PDT
by MarkL
(Do I really look like a guy with a plan?)

You reminded me of one of the funniest running gags in the cartoon show "The Goode Family". They fed the family dog ("Che", of course) nothing but vegetarian meals. No one seemed to connect the dog's diet with all the missing-pet flyers posted around the neighbourhood.

The cartoon was created by Mike Judge, who also created "King of the Hill". The Goode family was pretty much the opposite of Hank Hill, and the good ol' boys in the alley.

This protest is designed to be printed up and passed around your precinct and your friends and neighbors as a (index sized) palmcard. On the face (REVERSE SIDE)or below the slogan you can put the name of the candidate you favor and the election dates...EXCELLENT FOR SLIPPING UNDER WINDSHIELD WIPERS ON CARS PARKED IN KEY PARKING LOTS CHURCHES, RALLY SITES....

DEMO-COMS AND RINO CRYERS
GOD DENIERS AND PREDACIOUS LIARS
ARE REDISTRIBUTE WEALTH INCITERS/
FIRST YOUR MONEY THEN YOUR GUNS
ISSUING DECREES OF MANY COME
DEMAND SURRENDERING CHOICES ONE BY ONE
INTO REGIMENTATION YOU MUST RUN
AND NOW THEIR ROBOT YOUVE BECOME

Its time to get government out of Our faces
Our religions and and Our pocketbooks

So-called "nanny-state" measures - like bans on driving while drunk, smoking in public places

Bans on driving while incapacitated aren't nannystatism. These acts cause real torts, but surprisingly many drunks make it home night after night accident free. They're only discovered during police sobriety check points. This proves that at the times where there is no check point in place that number of intoxicated drivers are passing through unnoticed.

So that nanny-statism isn't really that effective in the first place and we know the source is liquor stores and bars which generate too much revenue to be directly targeted. Government loves sin taxes and we know how prohibition turned out.

The second point she makes in her straw man argument is even sillier since second hand smoke isn't the killer the left claimed it to be. She's using the epitomy of liberal logic - false facts coupled with loose correlations amounting to the phrase, "I'm an elite and I'm here to help [control your life]."

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